"I may not be the top guy," said the 23-year-old from Black Creek, B.C., a speck on the Vancouver Island map. "But I am a good runner who can compete with some of these international-level guys."

Levins finished 11th in the 10K, clocking 27:40.68. On Wednesday, he tore off a personal best in his heat of the 5,000 metres at Olympic Stadium to qualify for Saturday's final.

The five fastest runners in each of the two heats moved on, as did the next five fastest overall. Levins' time of 13:18.29, which put him eighth in Heat 2, was third-fastest of those admitted to the final based on time.

"All the heats are tough, no matter what," he said in the stadium's interview zone following his race. "After the first heat, I knew what I had to do in order to make it in. I was definitely more confident today than I was in the 10K. Then, I was concerned about trying to stay with the front pack.

"But this time, it was, 'okay, you can run with these guys. Put yourself right at the front and just be thinking about sprinting as hard as you can at the end.'"

Levins' training regimen is probably something you wouldn't attempt in your car. During his heaviest workouts, he says he'll run 240 kilometres a week; that's called lunacy by some, but you can't argue with his results of late.

As a senior, the two-time Canadian cross-country champion gave his University of Southern Utah its first NCAA Division 1 titles in the 5K and 10K this year.

Levins suggested, loudly, that he was ready to make his mark when at April's Mt. SAC relays in California he obliterated his own 5K personal best, carving it by 20 seconds to 13:18.47.

He followed that at Palo Alto with a 10K win against a quality pro and elite university field; the 27:27.96, in his first track-run 10K, was only four seconds off the Canadian record that now seems to be in grave danger.

On Wednesday, Levins achieved his pre-Games goal of making the 5K final. On Saturday, he'll line up beside two Ethiopians and a Kenyan, the three fastest qualifiers, and American Bernard Legat, one of Levins' idols.

"I actually got to race him today," he said, finishing not quite three seconds behind. "That's been a big dream of mine, so that was cool.

"I watched a lot of these athletes on TV in the past, in Diamond League events, world championships and the Olympics. I'd be saying, 'I wish I could go race these guys, be as good as them one day.' And now I'm going to be racing them all the time [on the European circuit]. I just can't think that these guys are amazing. I have to compete against them.

"They're Olympians for good reason and you should expect anything out of anybody. Everyone's here for a reason."

Levins is a legend back home in the Comox Valley, once the curly-haired kid whose feet were his preferred mode of transportation. He remembers helping out with the lawn-care business his father runs in nearby Campbell River.

"I'd work with him summers," Levins said. "Run in the morning, do six to eight hours of lawn care, run afterwards, have dinner, then run again."

He's run for as long as he can remember, since he was doing cross-country in Grade 2. Every other sport he tried fell by the wayside, running always first on his mind.

When his excellent times in high school didn't draw a sniff from an American college, he went online and sold himself to the University of Southern Utah, which put him on the track team.

The steady progression led to his breakout season this year. And the instant he ran his final NCAA race, he was signed to a lucrative, long-term contract with Nike, which eliminates any financial crunch as he plans a full-time professional approach to his sport. His name, he hopes, will soon be a hot property with European promoters.

But for now, that can wait. There's another 5,000 Olympic metres in Levins' immediate future.

"Today was tough and I knew what was going to happen the last lap," he said of Wednesday's heat. "I told myself, 'When you get there, just give whatever you can, it doesn't matter how you feel.' The world isn't unbeatable. I've trained as hard as some of these athletes and I can compete with them."

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